Nobody needs a tablet, but many people still want a tablet. This is still the core differentiator between a 'real' computer and a tablet. At least in The Netherlands, you can't function in society without a desktop or laptop connected to the internet, so people need a computer. A tablet, though? Hence, the most common thing people have told me when they played with my iPad 2 is this: I'd love to have a tablet, but not for hundreds of euros. Enter Google's Nexus 7, the first 'cheap' tablet that doesn't just validate Android as a tablet platform, but also gives the iPad a run for its money.

And ironically, one of those innovations--EFI--was directly responsible for making typical, generic x86 "PCs" made by Apple incompatible with everything else out there, while also paving the way for the extremely locked down hardware that has been materializing in recent years through the use of "trusted" (yeah right) computing.

Funny that. Last time I checked, I've got my current generation Apple machine tripple booting OS X, Windows, and Linux. Yeah, that's so locked down. If you're pissed off about the direction EFI is going on generic X86 hardware and this secure boot nonsense (I know I am) then why don't you point the finger where it belongs: Microsoft and the OEMs that don't have the balls to stand up to them. Interestingly enough, I don't have to deal with secure boot on my Apple machine, go figure. I can boot whatever the hell I want on this thing so long as it's an X86 os (EFI support preferable but not required), and I didn't even have to unlock anything. iDevices are locked down annoyances, but that hasn't yet extended to Macs. If it does, I'll have to go somewhere else though I don't know where as Linux's audio stack absolutely sucks and high quality audio support is an absolute necessity for what I do.